Morning journal and courier., 1887-06-27

estimate of the results of each mans life is |
to be formed. So soon as we bear this in |
mind we come to the right judgment of |
things, and we find that every noble life is |
successful. The evidence of the truth of |
this may be seen as we observe the progress |
of the world during continuous period and |
discover the sources of that progress. It is |
the working of individual men in their indi- |
yidual spheres which bears the good cause
forward The combination of the forces, |
and not any single one among them, is what
secures this end. We can think sometimes
that we can measure the results of one mans
living and find them to be Insignificant. But
it is not one mans living only; it is his
life in union with other lives. These other
lives are SO closely united with his in this
matter of influence that they become, as 1T
were, part of his. The movement of the
times takes up his and theirs together and
brings them to a common issue of good.
The success therefore for the individual is as
sure as the progress of right and truth is
sure.
The evidence of the truth of what we say
may be seen moreover in individual expert
ence. The thought that we have at times OF
insignifcance, to which We have just re-
ferred, is not thought founded upon real1-
ty. We may look into any community,
large or small, and watch the course OF the
rightly living men there, and there Will be
no uncertain answer to our questioning.
There have been men in this city, and IN
many cities and towns throughout the land,
whose influence has reached, directly or in
directly, the life of almost every citizen and
has extended far beyond their own hfe.time.
| But these have been only the more conspicu-
GUS cases. The thoughtful observer sees the
same thing as he sums up the results OF each
mans living, SO far as each has given him.
self wholly to the best and truest work. In
deed, know of no more interesting or en-
couraging thing which one can do, in an eff
fort to form just estimate of human life,
than to bring before his mind the career of
some honest, earnest worker for the truth in
his own community and try to measure &C.
curately what it's results are. He will find
them reaching out, both in the present and
into the future, much farther than he had
realized, and they reach out beyond the
limits of his vision he will see them moving
still onward in the direction of righteousness
and of success. The same thing will be
found true in every case. We cannot keep
in remembrance too constantly that, in this
matter of our life and work, it is not what
is widely conspicuous only which is worthy
of our notice or which proves the career to
be a successful one. The promise at the be-
ginning of the Christian work was not to
those alone who became in after years the
great leaders of the church, and whose per-
sonality is brought to our knowledge in the
record of what they accomplished. 1t was
given to all alike and realized in the results
know little but their names as by their asso-
ciates to whom a larger sphere in the world
was assigned. It will be also with us.
This life of righteousness, this life which
subordinates the outward to the inward and
takes hold upon the unseen and upon the di-
vine power and love, is not life of failure
either in itself or in its working. It is full
of the promise of the future, and the call to
enter it, as the time of preparation is ended,
is q bearing in itself the inspiration of as
sured hope. But there was something more
in the words which are guiding our thought
than even the summons and inspiration of
which we have spoken. The disciples were
pointed to true and permanent happiness
as awaiting them in the coming time. And
if know anything of what God has to give
to right-living men, I am sure that the mem
bers of this company who are now before me
will, if they live rightly and under the i'm
pulse of those teachings which Christ gave
to his followers, find the same blessing.
They will find, in their own experience, that
life grows deeper and richer in its happiness
as far onward into the years as the powers
shall continue in their activity and the life
can draw into itself what the divine good
ness has to offer to it. There is no greater
error in this matter than the one which
seems often to find Judgement in the minds
of many men, that the ~ Of life passes
away with youth, and that the golden period
| is behind us, receding into the distance as
| men of intellectual activity, whose education
has opened to them possibilities of thought
and learning in the richest fields? The mind,
as it natures and grows stronger, gets a
wider grasp upon truth; and it delights at
| forty in the contemplation of what it scarce
| ly knew at all at twenty. 1t reaches out re-
| joicingly after more, and continually sees in
/ it's growing self new capabilities and larger
/ results for the future, and so too of charac-
ter. We begin in the matter of character
when we are young; but the development is
| in the years which follow afterwards. Strong
as may be the right principles or the Chris
tian love and faith OF young man when he
/ leaves the university, he cannot by reason of
his years know what will be the joy for him
| self of his own growth in this regard when
| he has moved forward into some later stage
| of his living. Experiences of which he
knows nothing as yet, oftentimes experiences
of sorrow and disappointment, are the
sources of that conscious development of the
| inner life which, as the man turns his
| thought upon it, gives him the joy with
| which strangers do not interfere. And once
| more, the happiness of doing good and being
| helpful to the world. How largely, how al
most exclusively this belongs to the later
| rather than the earlier period. to the time of
| action rather than that of preparation. This
| is the necessary order of life. The man
| makes himself ready for the worlds activi-
/ ty; and then he goes forth to be useful. The
| joy of the beginning is beautiful in its sea-
| son, but it is far inferior to that which comes
i with the results. And the more the man is
| filed with the spirit of noble manhood,
| the greater will be the satisfaction which
comes to him, the blessing which dwells in
| his Utmost soul, as he sees the issues of his
action in the welfare of those around him.
| The divine father did not make us that we
| should look backward, but that we should
| look forward. He did not make the sunlight
| of our day to be bright at its dawning and
dark in its later hours, but he desired and
intended that the pathway of the righteous
| the rightly-living man-should shine more
and more into the perfect day.
The calm, deep, rich happiness of the life
| of the author of the fourth gospel-pure as
it must have been in the daily communion
with Jesus before the announcement of the
separation which was made on that last even
| ing-had not then reached it's greatest posi-
| bility. Sadly as the words, Arise, let us go
| hence, may have sounded to his ears as they
| suggested the separation, they carried within
themselves pointing towards future OF
work and experience, and thought and love,
and inward growth and ever increasing pow
er to help the sorrowful and the sinful, which
the dreamings even of the past had hardly
pictured. And the joy of the life came fer
him near the ending, when the thoughtful,
loving man was moved to write his record of
the masters life and his message of the
Christian truth.
so 1t Is with every man who lives as ne
did. It is law of our life which every
rightly living person tests and proves in his
own experience, that as the activities and the
attendant happiness of one stage Of our liv-
ing pass away with the progress of years, a
new joy, of which we had known nothing
before, enters with the new activity. We
are thus continually passing out of the lower
into the higher, and learning for ourselves
by what wonderful way of love the divine
friend is leading on to the Immortality
which is before us.
Moreover let me tell you, my young friends,
that long before the end of your living and
of your enthusiastic working, if you have
the faith that sees the invisible things and
the love that binds the soul to the divine
master, the thought and vision Of that i'm
mortality will come to your souls with q
more than earthly power and sweetness, and
will give to your every effort and success and
hone in Your daily living an additional ioy